Celanese board defends Blackstone takeover terms at AGM

?xml:namespace>FRANKFURT (CNI)--Celanese AG management defended the company’s takeover by private equity investor Blackstone at its annual general meeting on Thursday.

Andreas Pohlmann, chief executive of Celanese AG, now the European business of Dallas-based Celanese Corporation, said management is ‘convinced’ the decision to sell was right.

The annual general meeting was due to vote on a motion by New York investment management firm Paulson & Co to raise the Euro41.92/share offered by Blackstone to purchase shares held by shareholders in the European business. Paulson said that an audit it commissioned had placed the share’s true value at over Euro65/share.